Resistance 3 highlights where the PS3 user experience goes wrong

Playing the sublime Resistance 3 for the first time proved to be a frustrating …

Resistance 3 is one of the best games of the year, and it has been highly anticipated. I know when I received my copy I did what gamers all over the world will do: hastened to play it! And that's when it stopped me dead in my tracks: the Resistance 3 setup feels like an unintentional guided tour of some of the failings of the PlayStation 3, both in terms of hardware and online user interface.

The first thing I was asked to do after putting the disc into the system was download a 600+ MB update. Depending on how unknown factors come together, this update could take just a few minutes or, in my case, nearly 60 minutes. (Sony's problems with its update servers are well known and, to our knowledge, there has yet to be a technical explanation for why something as simple as a local proxy can boost speeds dramatically.)

With my patch downloaded, I was now ready to install this game and get down to the very important business of killing Chimera. Instead I was informed that I didn't have enough free space on my 60GB system. The multiple (mandatory) installations for past games have caught up with me, and I couldn't help but feel somewhat frustrated—these were mostly games I wouldn't have installed anyway.

So I had no choice but to manage the space on my system. I deleted a few older games to make room, feeling a bit irritated that, were I to want to play one of them in the future, I would have to sit through the mandatory installations again. Understand that I don't have an issue with installing games by choice; I do find it frustrating and a point against Sony's PS3 experience, however, that a 60GB HDD is not sufficient for managing a library of game installs. It most certainly is on other platforms.

Warning: language not safe for work

In the not too distant past, there were great debates about console gaming and whether "DVD-9 was enough" or not. DVD-9 is, of course, the format used by Microsoft's Xbox 360 for games, a format designed to stuff 8.5GB data onto an ancient DVD. This looks paltry next to Blu-ray's 25GB capacity, but that advantage seems to have largely disappeared in the face of Sony's mandatory installations. It's nice not having to swap out, say, 2 or 3 DVDs during an install, but I'd much prefer no install at all.

At this point, it had been well over an hour of updates, installations, and loading screens before I finally got to play the game. I actually played another videogame on another system to pass the time. But hey, single player here I come! Sadly, I would soon learn that my travails were not complete.

Online is even better

"Last night, I quit playing Resistance 3 so I could download a firmware update so I could open the PlayStation Store so I could redeem an online pass so I could play Resistance 3," Jim Sterling wrote in a rage-choked rant on Game Front.

You can't just play Resistance 3 online just because you've installed the game! First you have exit the game, head to the PlayStation Store, and learn that you have to install a firmware update. Then, after it has applied, you get to return to the Store and input a one-time use code to unlock online play (take that, buyers of used games!).

"I'm just as bad as everybody else—still buying games for sixty dollars apiece, still putting online codes in like a good little puppet, no matter how damaging to the industry's long-term success I think they are," Sterling wrote. "I know online passes are bad. I know lengthy firmware updates are annoying. I know mandatory installations that can take over forty-five minutes are utterly inexcusable. Chances are good that you know as well. Yet we're still swallowing it."

Before I returned to PC gaming, console friends would tell me that I was in for a headache: driver updates, bad parts, patches to download, etc. But I could have hand-built a new gaming PC in the time it took Resistance 3 to patch and install itself to the point where it was playable.

It's probably not a big surprise to hear, then, that many game PR houses treat PS3 copies of multiplatform games like cooties.

Anyone who writes about games professionally has had a PR person apologize to them because there were "only PS3 copies" left to send to the press post-release. The major reason for this has been described above: game journos have a never-end queue of games to review, and losing time installing a game is a hard pill to swallow, especially when you're on a deadline. Of course, in the case of PS3-only titles like Resistance 3, it's not relevant, except to note how these install issues manifest themselves even in something as minor as game PR.

The issues that led to what could be a multi-hour wait to play a single game can be tied to the hardware, the software, the publisher, the developer, and everyone else involved with the design of the PlayStation 3 experience. When someone buys your game, they are giving you two of the most precious things they have: their money and their time. It's time for Sony to begin to take both things more seriously.

312 Reader Comments

It used to be the case that you plugged a game in, turned the console on and had fun. Now, the 1 hour experience is normal (at least with PS3). I encountered it with GT5 and again with F1 2011. Even on games bought on release day there's already a 1.01 patch before you can go online. And you need to go to the Playstation Store to redeem your voucher (glorified description of the serial code). Couldn't this be integrated in the install process rather than being a separate gotcha?? Come on guys..

While it's great that you can strap a bluetooth headset on and scream obscenities at the people you're racing against, Sony updateitis is a bit overdone. They need to make the user experience more streamlined and less screwing around doing updates. Schedule them in the backgroun... oh wait you need a PSN "plus" subscription to do that which costs more money!!

Meh, Sony's set the bar pretty low. Whenever I get a new PS3 exclusive, I put it in immediately and get all that stuff out of the way, so when the weekend comes I can sit down and just play the game without wasting time on getting it installed or patched.

I got Resistance 3 out of Redbox once. I spent most of that night installing the thing. THEN I had to update it. Ended up playing it for a couple of minutes, put it back in it's case, deleted the data, and took it back.

I like the option to install games. I really do. But in this case, it felt excessive. I'd prefer to go the PSP route.

My girlfriend had just bought Prince of Persia 2008 for her PS3 and we were excited to play it. We mistakenly accepted downloading and installing the patches. It took over an hour to do. I fell asleep waiting.

When we also ready to play Portal 2 coop, we made sure that the friggin system was updated before the game came out. But then the fucking PSN went down for a month and we had to go through updates again once it came up. Oh yeah, and we couldn't do coop because even though she was lucky enough to have registered her copy to her Steam account, she can't run Portal 2 on her PC. So we had to wait while all our friends blazed through coop and tried not to spoil it for us.

Now, the only time I've waited longer than 15 seconds for updates on the 360 is for Dashboard updates. You know, the ones that come out once or twice a year. Any other non-system update is instantaneous on the 360.

Compared to the 360, the PS3 is a friggin mess in user experience. The exclusives aren't enough to get me to want to buy one and if I really do want to play a PS3 only game, I can play it at a friend's house. They just have to make sure they updated the damn thing before we sit to play.

Am I the only one who's bought a PSN title, downloaded it, installed it, and then on launch had to run an update? I just downloaded the game from your server! You seriously didn't give me the latest version and I have to patch it?

I like my PS3, but I've gotta agree with Ben; it's a real downer to constantly start your user experience with something new you're excited about with all this waiting and crap.

Edit: That said, I voted "I'd like to see improvement, but I'm not concerned" because I honestly don't care even 1/10th as much as Mr. Kuchera.

I went through the same experience with Resistance 3, however the cherry on top was, even after an hour of updating and installing, the game crashed on the 3rd level. And it hasn't been played since....

I think the best wind up is that auto updates happen with playstation plus so there's normally no waiting. Unless of course you expect to buy a psn title and play it the same day. It proves they can background update though - they just choose to sell the functionality.

I have to install every 360 game on my Xbox if I don't want to be deafened by the DVD drive, and juggling installs is a bear on my 20 GB HDD supplemented by a 16 GB USB drive. By comparison, my whisper quiet PS3 Slim, even with installs and patches, is less of a hassle.

Aurich wrote:

Am I the only one who's bought a PSN title, downloaded it, installed it, and then on launch had to run an update? I just downloaded the game from your server! You seriously didn't give me the latest version and I have to patch it?

XBLA and Games on Demand titles aren't pre-patched either. I bought Pac-Man Championship DX on my 360 last night and it needed patch when I ran it for the first time. PS3 patches are usually larger, and sometimes huge, but the fact is they also frequently include significant amounts of new, free content.

you should not be aloud to write anymore. every article i read of yours is flame bait and biased garbage and usually flat out wrong.

all platforms get updated. many games needs installs.

when is then last time you played a pc game that didn't need an install or updates?

steam updates all the time.

i updated my 360 and a gears update when gears 3 came out. that was mandatory too! sure the update was a little smaller but ps3 games are bigger games b/c they can fit more content on blu-rays. so what. most people have a broadband internet conniption and it doesn't long to update. it downloaded in 20 minutes for me. maybe you need a better internet connection.

software is almost immeasurably more complicated now than in the past. i would rather download updates then deal with bugs (and bugs happen to every piece of software no matter how you look at it). i am glad to see the updates come in so i know they are keeping on top of issues and updating their content.

i, and millions of others, enjoy their ps3's... report facts, no one wants to hear you complain. we don't care what your opinion is. i certainly don't, so you know what I am going to do... go back to enjoying a fantastic game on my ps3.

i have all the consoles and many pc games, and you know what, i enjoy my ps3 the most of all of them.

i, and millions of others, enjoy their ps3's... report facts, no one wants to hear you complain. we don't care what your opinion is. i certainly don't, so you know what I am going to do... go back to enjoying a fantastic game on my ps3.

I'd like to see an option for installs for ANY game -- but just leave it an option, don't make it mandatory.

For example, it would irritate me that 80% of my Rock Band songs are on my hard drive, but a handful (along with game art or whatever) would have to load off the disc and I'd be waiting through that time.

I previously had an identical experience as Ben, foolishly believing that I could simply put in Little Big Planet for my daughter to play. After a mandatory install and something like 4 patches -- some of them quite large -- it took over an hour to get her in the game.

The 360 gets it right. Non-mandatory installs and delta patches that are ~1 MB in size and take all of 10 seconds to download and install. No seemingly weekly firmware updates -- with new TOS that attempt to take away your rights or remove features -- and instead roughly two updates a year.

Let's not even start on the cludgy nature of PSN and the fact that, to this day, Sony still, for some strange reason, won't let me use my credit card to purchase items. Microsoft likes it just fine.

(Of course, after the PSN hack, this turned out to be in my favor; Sony didn't have my CC info to expose to hackers.)

I'm reminded of a comment I heard from a console-fanboy twerp, back in the Xbox-1 days: "What makes console games better than PC is that there's no loading."

Anyway, I guess It's all about expectations. PC gamers have been dealing with installs and patches since forever. A day one patch always sucks, but I tend to suck it up and kill some time. If it happened on my console, though, I'd probably lose my shit.

The PS3 is the only platform that it takes this long on. The only remotely comparable experience was updating the Witcher 2 on steam, and they fixed that pretty quickly.

I like my PS3, but it is a huge psychological hurdle that every time I want to play wipeout, or uncharted; I need to wait 10 minutes for an update. While on my Xbox, the worst part of the update is I'll get kicked out of the party chat for 10 seconds.

i, and millions of others, enjoy their ps3's... report facts, no one wants to hear you complain. we don't care what your opinion is. i certainly don't, so you know what I am going to do... go back to enjoying a fantastic game on my ps3.

responding means you cared.

i suppose it does :)

i care about not letting people sway public opinion with bad or biased complaining. ars is a news outlet, i want facts not complaining and bias.

i, and millions of others, enjoy their ps3's... report facts, no one wants to hear you complain. we don't care what your opinion is. i certainly don't, so you know what I am going to do... go back to enjoying a fantastic game on my ps3.

responding means you cared.

i suppose it does

i care about not letting people sway public opinion with bad or biased complaining. ars is a news outlet, i want facts not complaining and bias.

Nobody at Sony seems to care much about the playing experience that goes before you can play the game. Mandatory updates (that don't tell me what they're doing, so I have no idea why they're mandatory), and no way to schedule updates unless I shell out more cash for what's a basic feature on the 360... sigh. I like the exclusives more than I like the 360's, which is why I bought the PS3. But it's still frustrating. I've definitely started a game up, spent forty-five minutes updating, and ended up turning the PS3 off without ever starting the actual game.

and it takes seconds on the 360 - literally seconds to update a game. The experience between the 360 and the PS3 in this regard is night and day. If there is an update for the 360 - whether to the system or the game, I don't really care because it is a trivial amount of my time. For my PS3 if I have an update I might as well kick it off and then go downstairs to play something on my 360 (they are on different tvs so that we can have netflix on multiple tvs).

The objection isn't that games need to be updated. It is that the whole bloody experience is terrible. I can't tell you how much it pisses me off to want to simply watch something on Netflix but have to sit through 25 minutes of updating (20 minutes of completely aggregious download time, and five minutes of the system dicking around installing it). At this point the *only* reason the PS3 exists in my house is as a netflix box and the occassional exclusive. If a game is multi-platform I am buying it on the 360 - it's not even a question. Awesome exclusive content on the PS3 with the game - don't care, getting it on the 360. That's a problem for Sony.

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I think the best wind up is that auto updates happen with playstation plus so there's normally no waiting

Do you know how sad it is that a non-trivial number of users think that is the best aspect of Playstation Plus? Seriously, it's outragous you have to pay for a subscription for that feature.

you should not be aloud to write anymore. every article i read of yours is flame bait and biased garbage and usually flat out wrong.

all platforms get updated. many games needs installs.

when is then last time you played a pc game that didn't need an install or updates?

steam updates all the time.

i updated my 360 and a gears update when gears 3 came out. that was mandatory too! sure the update was a little smaller but ps3 games are bigger games b/c they can fit more content on blu-rays. so what. most people have a broadband internet conniption and it doesn't long to update. it downloaded in 20 minutes for me. maybe you need a better internet connection.

software is almost immeasurably more complicated now than in the past. i would rather download updates then deal with bugs (and bugs happen to every piece of software no matter how you look at it). i am glad to see the updates come in so i know they are keeping on top of issues and updating their content.

i, and millions of others, enjoy their ps3's... report facts, no one wants to hear you complain. we don't care what your opinion is. i certainly don't, so you know what I am going to do... go back to enjoying a fantastic game on my ps3.

i have all the consoles and many pc games, and you know what, i enjoy my ps3 the most of all of them.

There's a difference between patching bugs and delivering a 600MB binary. That's not a patch, that's a full replacement of a significant portion of the game's assets. It may be fine for you and me on our super fast connections, but what about people who live out in the boonies? Should they move just so they don't have to wait 9 hours for a "patch?" I can't remember the last time a Steam update took more that 2 minutes, even when I had a crummy WiMax connection; and if a game is updating you can usually still play it if you don't want to wait for the download. The installs are pretty rapid, as well. I think it's perfectly reasonable for people to be pissed about the PS3's patch management system, and judging from the other comments on this thread, a lot of other folks agree. It really says something about the console's ecosystem when every blockbuster ships with half a gig of patches. Every piece of software has bugs, for sure, but very little ships with 600MB of bugs on day 1. That is absolutely a sign that something is not right.

i, and millions of others, enjoy their ps3's... report facts, no one wants to hear you complain. we don't care what your opinion is. i certainly don't, so you know what I am going to do... go back to enjoying a fantastic game on my ps3.

If you're looking for "just the facts" and no opinions, I think you're at the wrong site. I come here precisely for the opinions, along with the facts.

With that said, I agree that it's completely inexcusable. Mandatory installs are one thing (what happened to this being the biggest advantage of console vs. PC?), but patches that don't download until you start a game? Downloading a PSN game only to have it require a patch before I can play? These things make no sense! If my PS3 is on, why is it not patching games in the background? Sure, don't download the "optional" updates or DLC, but if I cannot play a game until it's patched why hasn't the system already patched it in the background?

The last game I got for the PS3 was GT5 and that was a disaster. I even use the XBox 360 to play music from my DLNA server because it takes too long to get started with the PS3 since every time I turn it on it has to update the firmware.

If I hadn't lost my Atari Jaguar in a move it would see more use than my PS3.

you should not be aloud to write anymore. every article i read of yours is flame bait and biased garbage and usually flat out wrong.

all platforms get updated. many games needs installs.

when is then last time you played a pc game that didn't need an install or updates?

steam updates all the time.

i updated my 360 and a gears update when gears 3 came out. that was mandatory too! sure the update was a little smaller but ps3 games are bigger games b/c they can fit more content on blu-rays. so what. most people have a broadband internet conniption and it doesn't long to update. it downloaded in 20 minutes for me. maybe you need a better internet connection.

software is almost immeasurably more complicated now than in the past. i would rather download updates then deal with bugs (and bugs happen to every piece of software no matter how you look at it). i am glad to see the updates come in so i know they are keeping on top of issues and updating their content.[snip...]

How is this article wrong? Ben was saying that it used to be that gamers bitched that PC's needed to be updated all the time, now the PS3 has joined in. Non-working multiplayer or single player is bad testing not just complex code. Finding bugs is one thing, quite often there are real playability defects in the game which shouldn't have made it past beta 1.For something that cost me £40 and claimed to have cost millions making it you have to wonder if your including the PR champagne celebrations and the executive golf access in that amount because you obviously were not spending it on testing what was written.

PS. I installed OSX Lion two months ago, and guess how many mandatory updates I've had to install. There is currently one optional to do with switching between internal video and HDMI and wifi tweeks which I haven't installed yet as I don't have issues with either. Was Resistance 3 more complex than an operating system? It certainly costs more.

you should not be aloud to write anymore. every article i read of yours is flame bait and biased garbage and usually flat out wrong.

all platforms get updated. many games needs installs.

when is then last time you played a pc game that didn't need an install or updates?

steam updates all the time.

i updated my 360 and a gears update when gears 3 came out. that was mandatory too! sure the update was a little smaller but ps3 games are bigger games b/c they can fit more content on blu-rays. so what. most people have a broadband internet conniption and it doesn't long to update. it downloaded in 20 minutes for me. maybe you need a better internet connection.

software is almost immeasurably more complicated now than in the past. i would rather download updates then deal with bugs (and bugs happen to every piece of software no matter how you look at it). i am glad to see the updates come in so i know they are keeping on top of issues and updating their content.

i, and millions of others, enjoy their ps3's... report facts, no one wants to hear you complain. we don't care what your opinion is. i certainly don't, so you know what I am going to do... go back to enjoying a fantastic game on my ps3.

i have all the consoles and many pc games, and you know what, i enjoy my ps3 the most of all of them.

There's a difference between patching bugs and delivering a 600MB binary. That's not a patch, that's a full replacement of a significant portion of the game's assets. It may be fine for you and me on our super fast connections, but what about people who live out in the boonies? Should they move just so they don't have to wait 9 hours for a "patch?" I can't remember the last time a Steam update took more that 2 minutes, even when I had a crummy WiMax connection; and if a game is updating you can usually still play it if you don't want to wait for the download. The installs are pretty rapid, as well. I think it's perfectly reasonable for people to be pissed about the PS3's patch management system, and judging from the other comments on this thread, a lot of other folks agree. It really says something about the console's ecosystem when every blockbuster ships with half a gig of patches. Every piece of software has bugs, for sure, but very little ships with 600MB of bugs on day 1. That is absolutely a sign that something is not right.

also, installs are a developer choice usually for speed improvements.

have you played God of War 3? a 50BG game runs straight for the blu-ray and is one of the best looking games this gen. no installs or anything.

stop blaming sony for everything. if you not happy with it bring it up the the developer.

Rage is going to be 3 discs on the 360, and a 22GB installs on the 360. 1 disc on the PS3 and an 8GB install.

Forza 3 was 2 discs and REQUIRED and install. Why are you not attacking MS for Forza 3?

I understand my experience is not the same as everyones. I have a fast internet connection but, my issue is more that Ben is always attacking Sony directly when its not always just Sonys fault.

Yes, I agree, that a 600MB day 1 patch is crazy, sure. But if thats the case, talk about Insomniac and not Sony. Sony didn't develop the game. Insomniac did. This is what I mean about facts. Ben never even mentions the actual game developer... not once in the article. This is incorrect biased misleading garbage that is just another excuse to attack Sony.

I am not opposed to Bens general opinion, but as a writer for a widely read news outlet he needs to outline the facts... this is not usually the case, case in point.

I'm hard pressed to remember the last time a game of mine either required a firmware update on my XBox, or a Windows hotfix.

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when is then last time you played a pc game that didn't need an install or updates?

The problem aren't the updates, but that they a) are large, b) have unpredictable speed, c) are mandatory for single player(!).

That PC games require install: Granted, but it's for essentially the same reason that games on consoles require you to Press Start: It's been like that for ages now (and PC games always were on writeable storage until the CD-ROM appeared).

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steam updates all the time.

In the background. I'm never, ever bothered by Steam having to update a game (exception: online play, but even there: not everything gets updated at the same time).

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i updated my 360 and a gears update when gears 3 came out. that was mandatory too!

Liar.

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sure the update was a little smaller but ps3 games are bigger games b/c they can fit more content on blu-rays.

I fail how a patch's size is in any way related to the size of the offline delivery vehicle.

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most people have a broadband internet conniption and it doesn't long to update. it downloaded in 20 minutes for me. maybe you need a better internet connection.

Or maybe Sony needs to rework their update system. Considering that most issues are on Sony's end, and not on their customer's end... well, Occam's Razor, and all that.

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software is almost immeasurably more complicated now than in the past. i would rather download updates then deal with bugs (and bugs happen to every piece of software no matter how you look at it).

So? Nobody complains (anymore, yet we should, and loudly!) about launch updates. The problem is that it is an unpredictable amount of work to get these updates applied. Or when they happen (Aside from title updates).

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i have all the consoles and many pc games, and you know what, i enjoy my ps3 the most of all of them.

Mandatory game installs are stupid. Period. There is no excuse for this shit.

And that is ignoring the stupidly lengthy updates every PS3 game seems to get frequently, along with the PS3 firmware and OS updates. I can leave my 360 off for a couple months (primarily a PC gamer), turn it on, it'll probably have an update, but it will take a minute to download and half that again to install. Then I'm good to go. Compare that to the last time I turned on my parent's PS3 and I had to wait 45 got damn minutes to play a game that was already installed on the HD online. And that had only been a month since it was last used.

stop blaming sony for everything. if you not happy with it bring it up the the developer.

Sony is not responsible for updates to the games, but they are responsible for firmware-updates. And are updates on Xbox delta-updates, while they are not on the PS3? That would go long way in explaining the difference. And FYI: I own a PS3, no xnox.

stop blaming sony for everything. if you not happy with it bring it up the the developer.

Rage is going to be 3 discs on the 360, and a 22GB installs on the 360. 1 disc on the PS3 and an 8GB install.

Forza 3 was 2 discs and REQUIRED and install. Why are you not attacking MS for Forza 3?

I understand my experience is not the same as everyones. I have a fast internet connection but, my issue is more that Ben is always attacking Sony directly when its not always just Sonys fault.

I have not played any of those games, so I really can't speak to any of those points, but I think the main gripe is that the PS3 forces you to install these updates to even load a game. I, personally, have never, not once, experienced that on any other system.